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Richard Elliott Friedman
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Richard Elliott Friedman earned his doctorate at Harvard in Hebrew Bible. He was a Visiting Fellow at Cambridge and Oxford and a Senior Fellow of the American Schools of Oriental Research in Jerusalem. He participated in the City of David Project archaeological excavations of biblical Jerusalem. He is now the Ann and Jay Davis Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Georgia and is the Katzin Professor of Jewish Civilization Emeritus of the University of California, San Diego.

HIs website is richardelliottfriedman.com

His books have been translated into Hebrew, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Japanese, Polish, Hungarian, Dutch, Portuguese, Czech, Turkish, Korean and French. "Who Wrote the Bible?" has sold over 250,000 copies, was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection, a New York Times Editors’ selection, and was the subject of a three-hour television special. "The Disappearance of God" (published in paperback as "The Hidden Face of God") was named among the “ Best Books of 1995” by Publishers Weekly. "The Hidden Book in the Bible" was named among the “Best Books of 1998” by Publishers Weekly. It was a selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club, History Book Club, Quality Paperbacks Book Club and Jewish Book Club. His "Commentary on the Torah, "with his new translation of the Five Books of Moses, was named among Commentary Magazine's Best Jewish Books of 2001. His "The Bible with Sources Revealed" was a National Jewish Book Award Finalist of 2005.

He has been interviewed by CNN’s Larry King and on NPR’s “All Things Considered” and “Morning Edition” and “Radio Times” and “Talk of the Nation” by Robert Siegal, Ray Suarez and Derek McGinty. Articles and citations of his work have appeared in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, U.S. News & World Report, Time, New York Daily News, Newsweek, Commentary, Commonweal, The Atlantic Monthly, The Forward, Moment, The Jerusalem Post, Maariv and Haaretz.

He was a consultant for the Dreamworks film “The Prince of Egypt,” for NBC's “The Eternal Light," for A&E, PBS and “Nova.”

Blog Entries by Richard Elliott Friedman

Does Israel Have No Roots There in History?

(1310) Comments | Posted October 13, 2012 | 10:26 AM

On Sept. 24, the president of Iran informed reporters that Israel has "no roots there in history" in the Middle East. Now a lot of good jokes come to mind at the expense of this clueless man, but, seriously folks, he has at least conveyed an important truth:...

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The Status of Women in the Bible

(534) Comments | Posted September 13, 2011 | 2:00 PM

We intended that each one of this series of posts would give a good example from "The Bible Now" of what is involved in seriously dealing with the Bible and five "hot" issues of our day in light of the advances in current Bible scholarship and archaeology. That is what...

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Are Biblical Laws About Homosexuality Eternal?

(1920) Comments | Posted August 1, 2011 | 5:52 PM

One of the recent reviews of "The Bible Now" that was favorable on the whole criticized us on one point in our chapter on homosexuality. The reviewer said that we were liberals, with a liberal agenda, and that we had twisted the clear meaning of the biblical law to fulfill...

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Getting the Bible Right on Abortion

(74) Comments | Posted June 8, 2011 | 12:40 PM

As we said in our first post, our book, "The Bible Now," deals with the Bible's role in five current controversial issues. For these posts, we shall give one small example from each of the five. Our purpose is (1) to shed light on that particular case itself and (2)...

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The Bible: As Relevant (and Misunderstood) as Ever

(1631) Comments | Posted May 28, 2011 | 9:10 AM

Both read the bible day and night; but you read black where I read white. --William Blake

No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means. --George Bernard Shaw

More than 20 centuries after the Bible's production, people...

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